31/10/2026
Community Historian Brendan Matthews. Oíche Samhain 2026. “For are they Gods or real Folk”. Photograph taken by Brendan Matthews earlier today, Saturday October 31st 2026, depicts a `Halloween` scene at Stedalt Cross in Stamullen and a word of thanks to those responsible for creating this particular and delightful scene. Samhain, Its literal meaning and translation refers to that of `Summers End`. This was the beginning of the Celtic New Year; one of the four major festivals held throughout their calendar year in ancient Ireland. It was a Pastoral festival, the crops of the summer had been harvested and stored after their summer festival of Lunaghnasa and the onset of winter and darker days lay ahead. It was a particularly spiritual period for our ancestors; it was also a noticeable seasonal change between two elements, Darkness & Light and it became very significant as it was the time when the `Otherworld` became visible to all mankind and it became the night when spiritual forces emerged into the mortal world to seek vengeance on those who may had wronged them. The `Otherworld` was a general term for the lands or place where the numerous Gods and Goddesses dwelled and existed and it was also a place where one was reborn after death. The Celts were in fact one of the very first European Cultures to Evolve a Doctrine of Immortality of the Soul. Philosophers such as Sotion and Clement had recorded that their own Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul had been adopted by their ancestral Greeks from Continental Celts. The Celtic belief was that death was never the end and that it was but a changing of place and that life went on in all its forms in the `Otherworld`; an ever ending exchange of Souls was always taking place between the two worlds. The significance of the `Otherworld` was very deep and spiritual for our ancestors and it was not just a place where the `person went after death`. This `Otherworld` was also a place to transcend to at particular times and occasions, places such as Tír na Scath (land-of-shadows), Tír na tSamhraidh (land –of-summer), Tír fo Thuinn (land-beneath-the-wave), Tír Tairnigiri (land-of-promise) and of course Tír na nÓg (land-of-youth). The magnificent Mythological Epic Stories and Tales of old Ireland are equally as warm and as fascinating as any of the Mythology that emerged from the ancient Greek or Latin Myths. The tales had been told and retold over Millennia before they were eventually written down in the sixth and seventh century by early Irish Christian Monks and It is a great pity that when the time came to record these stories in a written text format rather than the earlier Oral tradition, a new and more powerful religion (that of Christianity and the `one-true-God), had replaced the one in which the older Pagan tales reflected. The early Christian Monks in Ireland of course changed much of the older tales to suit their own religious sensibilities. However it is also a known fact that the early Christian Monks in Ireland actually received much of their education from the Druids; the word `Druid` meaning `Thorough Knowledge` a profession of which the Irish Celtic Druids were particularly noted, even beyond these shores. The ancient Celts did not look upon their Gods as their Creators, rather they referred to them as their Ancestors; they changed and turned their Gods and Goddesses into Heroes and Heroines and their Heroes and Heroines into Gods and Goddesses, so that it becomes particularly difficult to understand sometimes whether these old tales were often referring to `real-people` or to the Gods and Goddesses with whom it appears they had an incredible affiliation. Christianity superimposed their own Religious festivities and celebrations on the earlier Pagan Religion Festival and the older `Samhain` became known as All Hollows Eve, the day prior to All saints or All Hallows Day which was celebrated in the Christian calendar on November 1st so the evening before on October 31st became known as Halloween. Oíche Shamhna Shona. Researched, written & compiled by Community Historian Brendan Matthews. ©2026
